


Five Times Thor caught Loki Singing (and One Time Loki Sang for Thor)

by Silent_So_Long



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Community: norsekink, Gen, Kid Loki, Kid Thor, M/M, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-29 06:20:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_So_Long/pseuds/Silent_So_Long
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor spies on Loki while his brother is singing and endeavours to hear him again. Based on <a href="http://norsekink.livejournal.com/11337.html?thread=26885961#t26885961">a really cute prompt</a> left upon norsekink.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Thor caught Loki Singing (and One Time Loki Sang for Thor)

~ 5 ~

Thor ran through the trees, movements erratic as he ducked and dived around thick trunks; the sunlight shone intermittently through the leaves, seeming to flicker on and off in green and gold bursts as the small prince ran beneath the branches flowing overhead. He waved a small branch before him, wielding it like a sword in a childish mimicry of the elder Asgardian warriors. He stabbed and parried, feinted and struck, letting loose with childish yells and whooping cries as he fought imaginary enemies. In his mind’s eye, he envisioned a multitude of monsters, serried ranks of Jotun warriors waiting for him to pick them off with childish skill. His chubby legs stretched and feet pounded against the floor of the forest as he ran, sending pockets of leaves flying up into the air.

Eventually, Thor flung himself to the ground, tiring of his games and sending his booted feet flying into the air as far as his legs could reach. He waved his impromptu sword one last time in the air, before letting his arm fall to the ground and he lay still. He stared up at the blanket of leaves overhead, at the pretty patterns they made against the sky behind them as they rustled in gentle breezes. Thor smiled and watched as the sunlight seemed to shift like waves with the motions of the branches and the sky turned blue, then green, then blue again. 

His attentions were diverted suddenly by the sounds of singing coming from nearby; for one all too brief instant, he thought he was dreaming. The voice was so clear, so ethereal and beautiful, Thor had decided that it couldn’t possibly be real. It was only when he sat upright amidst a cascade of disturbed leaves, and pinched himself so hard that it hurt that he realized that the singing he heard wasn‘t a dream, after all. He stood, abandoning his branch to the ground where it belonged, before heading in the general direction of the singing curiously. He crept as quietly as he could through the leaves, yet the shushing sounds they made on his passage could not be entirely silenced. Eventually, he left the leaves behind, advancing to clearer ground and more silent passage. 

He came to the edge of a lake set amidst a clearing in the trees and the sunlight caught against the waters in myriad diamond sparkles; the water reflected the blue of the sky until it too seemed to become an extension of the water. He stopped beneath the shade of the trees, keeping out of view of the water as much as he could for fear of startling whoever was singing, and thereby causing them to stop. He finally recognized the tune as being a lullaby that all the Asgardian children knew and had learnt by rote by the time they were five. 

Despite having heard this song many a time throughout his short life, Thor still wanted to hear that beautiful song forever; the notes seemed to shimmer and to dance in the air, and formed an enchantment all their own. Thor smiled, feeling himself drawn in by the song; never had he heard such a beautiful voice before. Not even his mother could sing lullabies to him quite so beautifully, and she had one of the best voices of all of Asgard. 

His eyes darted about trying to find the singer, until he found the source of the voice. The surface of the lake was broken by ripples, as a figure swam through the waters, slowly approaching where Thor hid; a familiar dark haired head soon was to be seen, slicked back from a thin face with sparkling green eyes. Thor was surprised; he hadn’t known that Loki had such a beautiful singing voice. Loki didn’t usually sing around the many vaulted halls of their home, and Thor wondered why the other prince would hide such a beautiful voice away.

It was only when Loki swam to the shore near where Thor himself was sheltered by the trees, that Thor moved. He didn’t wish to be caught staring; Loki no doubt would accuse him of spying if caught. The young prince slipped away as silently as he could and made his way back home. All the while, Loki’s song and clear voice haunted him, and he could think of nothing else for days on end after that.

~ 4 ~

Thor wandered out of the Banquet hall, a little bored by the talk of the adult Asgardians; he’d tried to take interest in all that they’d said, but when the topic had shifted from fighting and bloodshed to peace talks and politics, the princeling had lost interest entirely. Loki had long since left the Hall, having gotten bored long before Thor did. Thor wondered where the other had gotten to, and whether the other prince would be interested in play-fighting.

He tried Loki’s rooms first and found no evidence that Loki had ever been there; the fires remained lit as they always were, yet the boy himself was nowhere to be seen. He tried the library next, knowing that if Loki was not in his rooms, then he would quite likely be found there instead. He heard the other’s singing before he even reached the library and Thor’s mind went back to his visit to the lake the week before and the way that Loki had sung so beautifully under summer skies, unfettered by the constraints that Loki placed naturally about himself. That Loki thought he was as alone now as he thought he had been at the lake was obvious; Thor didn’t want to intrude, if it meant that Loki would stop singing.

Loki’s voice drifted through the space separating them, voice wonderfully clear and carrying easily upon the hushed silence surrounding them. Thor closed his eyes, as enchanted this time as he had been the first time he’d heard that soaring voice, more music than actual singing. In it he could imagine all manner of birds accompanying Loki, and could almost feel the brush of their wings against his skin as they fluttered past unseen. He shivered despite himself, yet it was a pleasurable shiver, one of warmth and cosiness as he imagined laying by the fire and asking Loki to sing, just for him. 

Suddenly he wanted that to happen so badly, he almost stormed right into the library and demanded that Loki perform for him, yet he found that he couldn’t move, or at least, didn‘t want to. He just stood there, transfixed, transported to realms that seemed magical even to him, as Loki sang of happiness, of love, of flying to places unknown where no one judged and he was welcome. There was sudden sadness in the tone of Loki’s voice then and in turn, it made Thor feel sad, yet that emotion soon disappeared beneath the weight of the beauty in Loki’s voice. 

He crept away before he was discovered, and vowed to himself that he would try and track down Loki wherever he was, just so he could listen to that voice whenever he could.

~ 3 ~

Thor followed Loki through the trees, following the dark haired prince to the orchards. Even though years had passed since first he’d heard Loki’s singing, Thor still felt fascinated by it, compelled to follow to hear more of Loki’s beautiful song and voice. He hadn’t forgotten his promise to himself as a boy to follow Loki wherever he went, keeping at a safe enough distance to avoid discovery.

Still, on more than one occasion he’d almost been discovered, inadvertently making a noise when he should have been still, alerting Loki to the factthat he wasn‘t as alone as he‘d thought. In those instances Loki had immediately stopped singing and demanded for the intruder to make himself known. Thor had not liked to reveal himself so had slipped away before Loki could discover him. Each time he wondered why Loki kept it a secret; he would have thought it a good thing to entertain everyone at their daily banquets, as he almost always did his magic. Loki had never previously been one to be shy, after all. 

He watched as Loki performed magic, hands lifting and slender fingers glowing with the green glow that Loki called his own; it was as unique to him as it was for a male to perfect the feminine art of magic. Loki hummed to himself, not quite singing but not quite silent either. The tune was so heartbreakingly sad, yet Thor felt compelled to listen all the same. It was as though Loki was using his song to concentrate or enhance his spell-casting somehow, and he watched, as Loki sent tendrils of glowing light up into the sky like fireworks. Each silent burst of light illuminated the night sky, casting green light everywhere; Thor followed the tendrils into the heavens and watched as burst upon burst flickered across the sky. 

It was only when Thor returned his gaze to where Loki had been that he realized that the other had moved and was now just standing but a few feet away, staring boldly at him, green eyes glittering in the glow of the remainder of his magic. 

“Why are you following me, Thor?” Loki asked, not sounding angry, merely curious. “Do you not see me enough within the walls of Asgard?” 

“Yes,” Thor said, deciding not to dispense with honesty. “I came to hear you singing.” 

“My singing? Why are you interested in my singing? It is nothing special,” Loki said, genuinely surprised by Thor’s admission. 

“It is, brother; you have a very beautiful voice,” Thor told him, fervently, as he came forward to clasp his hands about Loki’s so tightly that Loki could not draw away.

Thor was grateful that the other didn’t even make the attempt to pull away from him; instead, Loki merely stood there, staring at him, fingers twined through Thor‘s larger hands. 

“It is nothing special,” Loki insisted again. “Mother has a much finer voice than I.” 

“That is where you’re wrong,” Thor said, as he lifted one hand to rest it upon Loki’s shoulder. “Your voice is far more lovely even than Mother’s. Why do you hide it away?” 

“I do not hide,” Loki grated out, and there was true anger in his eyes at that. “Do not accuse me of such. I merely do not wish to reveal that I can sing; the others tease me enough about my magic. Why should I give them more ammunition regarding my voice, when singing is a woman’s work.” 

“Why do you think that way? We all sing at banquets, even Fandral,” Thor said. “It is my friends who bother you, isn’t it?” 

“Your friends,” Loki said, and he snorted, to delineate the fact that they were Thor’s friends and not Loki’s own. “When you sing, you are all drunk.” 

“Point taken,” Thor conceded, with a nod. “But still, I should like to hear you singing at the next banquet.” 

Loki merely frowned and refused to answer. Thor sighed, knowing when to concede to his brother’s wishes if it meant keeping the peace between them.

“Fine, perhaps not at the next banquet. But can you sing something for me? In private?” he asked, turning hopeful eyes onto Loki.

Loki suddenly looked amused then, mouth twitching as though he was trying his hardest not to give into his inevitable grin. 

“Perhaps,” Loki conceded, finally.

Thor smiled back; even though Loki had made no promise to fulfil Thor’s wish, Thor knew that it was the closest he was ever going to get to an agreement. He wondered what it would take for Loki to fulfil that almost-promise.

~ 2 ~

Thor had almost forgotten Loki’s singing by the time he reached full manhood; over the years he’d followed Loki, until, inexplicably, it became harder to find him when Loki had decided to take off on his own. Thor had eventually given up, mourning the loss of the sound of Loki’s clear voice and beautiful melodies. He’d consigned many of the melodies to his memory, yet even those faded in time.

Those memories soon came back, however, when Loki accompanied him on one of his many hunting trips; like Loki before him, Thor had taken to sometimes going off on jaunts of his own, to clear his head of Asgardian politics. Loki had managed to catch a brace of hares that night, to Thor’s single one; a fact that had pleased Loki, if not Thor, who felt embarrassed by his lack of hunting skills that night. 

After skinning, cleaning, gutting and finally cooking the hares, they ate in silence, before they huddled beneath the cover of the single fur blanket that Thor had brought with him. Loki settled against Thor in much the same manner as he had in childhood, eyes fettered against the night and body lax in Thor’s arms while he slept. Thor was soon to join him in sleep’s dream-filled embrace, mind lulled into complacency by Loki’s closeness, yet his arms were empty by the time that morning broke. 

His eyes drifted open, yet he didn’t stir himself immediately, body still too clogged with sleep to move more than an inch at a time. From outside he could hear the sound of Loki singing as he cooked the remainder of the meat for breakfast. Thor smiled to himself, memories flooding back from their childhood and the countless times he’d heard that sweet voice haunting his every waking moment. That moment was soon broken by the time that Loki came padding in, to poke Thor with the toe of his boot.

“Wake up, you sleepy lump,” Loki said, a fond smile in his tone as Thor rolled onto his back to stare up at him. “Or do you not wish to fill your ever ravenous belly?”

“I’m awake,” Thor mumbled, as he sat up and accepted the meat directly from Loki’s hand.

Despite the fact that Loki had decreed Thor to be a lazy lump, he was quick to join the other beneath the soft weight of the blanket they’d shared the night before. They ate in silence, Loki’s body a comforting weight against his own.

~ 1 ~

Thor made his way into the stables of Asgard, feeling a little irritated that he‘d had to search the seeming width and breadth of Asgard just to find Loki. Thor knew from past experience that of Loki did not want to be found, then he had the knack of not wanting to be found, either through disguising himself in another form, or cloaking himself in shadows and spells to avoid detection.

Inside the stables, he found the usual trappings of horse-keeping and the familiar scents of horses surrounding him on all sides. Thor took a moment to breathe in, to centre himself and cleanse himself of the irritation that had previously consumed him. He realized then that the irritation hadn‘t stemmed from the search for Loki alone, it had started some months before; Thor could trace its roots to the time when the stone-mason had arrived to repair the fallen wall that guarded Asgard’s boundaries. 

No one had wanted the stone-mason there after hearing the cost of labour, yet it was Loki’s quick thinking and silver tongue that had convinced Odin to allow the mason to remain. Loki’s tongue had almost cost them the sun, the moon and Freya after the mason had almost succeeded in finishing the wall in time; Thor could still hear the outrage that rang through Asgard and Odin’s subsequent orders for Loki to sort the entire mess out. Loki had left, and had not returned for some time. 

Thor sighed, and ran one hand against a vacant stall nearby, memories still caught in the past; he could still feel the betrayal he’d felt when it had come to light that the mason was a giant. His hand still ached from the blow he’d delivered to the giant’s head, Mjolnir consigning the giant to Hel where he belonged. Loki‘s return had been another blow for Asgard, or rather the sight of Loki‘s newborn son had caused such a stir. Thor couldn’t help but share in Loki’s pride over the tiny eight legged foal, despite the fact that he couldn’t outwardly show that pride. Thor should have guessed right from the start of his search that Loki would be with Sleipnir; Loki loved that foal more than anyone. 

As Thor headed deeper into the stables, he could hear Loki singing quietly; although the other’s voice was pitched at quieter levels than previous times, the tone was still as beautiful as Thor remembered it, filled with the joy of life that Thor knew Loki felt beneath his lies and his mischief. He stood and listened for a while, soothed by the beautiful voice and the lovely song, before he heard Loki sigh.

“I know you’re there, Thor,” Loki’s voice drifted out of Sleipnir’s stable. “Don’t bother hiding any longer.” 

Thor grinned despite his earlier irritation; he came out of the shadows to lean against the door of Sleipnir’s stable, to stare down at Loki with the foal held in his arms. The eight legged beast was calm in his mother’s arms, and he appeared to be sleeping; Thor assumed that Loki had sung him to sleep. 

“What do you want, Thor?” Loki asked, when Thor did little more than stare at the scene displayed before him. 

“I just came to see how you were,” Thor said, as he stared down at the foal. “No one’s seen much of you since your return.” 

“I am here,” Loki said, simply, before he went back to stroking Sleipnir’s neck. 

The foal whuffled and twitched in his sleep, eight legs moving in sleepy dream chases. 

“He’s so perfect,” Loki murmured, more to himself than to Thor. “I can’t let Odin take him from me.” 

“You have no choice, Loki, I’m sorry,” Thor told him, gently. “I tried to reason with him, but he won’t even listen to me. You‘re going to have to give Sleipnir up. It‘s the only way.” 

“It’s not right,” Loki shouted, suddenly, eyes narrowed up at Thor and Sleipnir twitched away from the sudden loud noise.

“I never said that it was,” Thor said, gently, but Loki didn‘t listen. 

Thor looked on helplessly as Loki stroked at Sleipnir’s little head, the foal’s spindly legs flailing for just a minute until he heard Loki’s soothing voice; Loki hummed soothingly in quick snatches, as though he was embarrassed at Thor‘s presence. 

“Why do hide your voice away, brother?” Thor asked, next, remembering the countless enchantments Loki had woven upon him over the years with his song. 

“I told you why,” Loki said, and fell silent. 

Thor sighed and knew that that was the only answer he was ever going to get from Loki; he watched his brother for a while, smiling despite himself at the contentment that Loki displayed when he was Sleipnir. Eventually, he left them alone and before he’d even retreated three feet, Loki began to sing again. Thor stopped to listen, eyes closing as Loki sang an old Asgardian lullaby to Sleipnir, feeling the old wash of contentment and enchantment stealing over him, before finally leaving altogether.

~ + 1 ~

Thor stared up at the ceiling of the Healing Rooms, feeling restless and itchy. It had been hours since the Healers had seen to his wounds and he wanted to attend the feast and revelry in the Banquet Hall, instead of waiting for his wounds to heal alone. He was surprised, however, when Loki entered the room, tall form silently melting out of the shadows, his by now familiar smirk lifting the corners of his lips.

“Come now, brother, I expected to see you at the feast,” Loki said, as he settled beside Thor upon his bed. 

“I cannot, as yet. Not until my wounds have healed sufficiently,” Thor said, and he couldn’t keep the anger from his tone. “I wish to be at the feast.”

“And you will be, soon,” Loki said, as he examined Thor’s wounds. 

Loki nodded to himself, apparently satisfied that the flesh was knitting satisfactorily. 

“Why are you here?” Thor asked, turning his anger at his situation upon Loki instead.

“Frigga sent me,” Loki admitted, dark haired head dipping down to stare at the floor. “Besides, banquets are not nearly quite so much fun when you are not there.” 

Thor nodded at that, anger dissipating beneath the relief that he felt that Loki had at least come partially under his own volition to see him. He didn’t speak, merely stared at Loki, until the other shifted a little uncomfortably beneath the other’s scrutiny.

“Will you sing to me, brother?“ Thor asked finally.

“You know I cannot,” Loki said, uncomfortably, body stiffening with his discomfort and embarrassment.

“Cannot, or will not?” Thor asked, quietly. “No one else is here, and you did once promise me that you would sing to me privately.”

“I made no such promise,” Loki said, and Thor knew his words to be the truth.

Loki hadn’t made that promise; instead, the Liesmith had said on a far off summer‘s afternoon one word - perhaps. Thor sighed and hung his head, knowing that it hadn’t hurt to have at least tried asking. He heard Loki sigh beside him, before he felt the other’s hand upon his thigh, as though Loki was trying to gain Thor’s attention. Thor knew that such gestures were unwarranted; Loki always had his attention over anyone else and Loki knew it. Still, Thor looked up from beneath his eyebrows, watching as Loki readied himself to sing.

Loki did, then; he sang that same lullaby Thor remembered from their childhood. Thor was as enchanted by Loki’s voice as he had been when he’d been but a boy, perhaps more so now that he was so much older and could fully appreciate Loki’s talent. He leant up against Loki then, head coming to rest against the other’s shoulder; he heard Loki’s sudden snort of laughter interrupting his melody. Loki’s arm settled around Thor’s shoulders then, long fingers describing patterns against his arm. Thor sighed, contentment settling through him, as Loki continued to sing. 

He was smiling before Loki had even finished, eyes fluttering closed as he felt Loki’s hand stroke strands of hair away from his forehead, as though Loki was recapturing remembered tenderness from the past. He felt the merest brush of lips against the top of his head before Loki eased away, to stand and turn away. Thor reached out and grabbed hold of Loki’s arm, large hand stilling Loki in his tracks before he even got one foot away from him. 

“Stay with me, brother,” Thor asked, so quietly, Loki almost missed it.

Loki’s head dipped once in a nod of agreement, before he settled down beside Thor again. They sat in silence then for a time, until Thor felt ready enough to leave the Healing rooms and to head for the banquet himself, Loki his ever present shadow. Despite the revelry surrounding them, and the loud voices that sang from all quarters, Thor’s mind still rested upon Loki, and the way that he’d finally deigned to sing for him. He smiled, deciding that he didn’t care, after all, if Loki decided to keep his talent to himself; if Loki would but sing for him alone in the future, whether Loki knew about it or not, then it would be enough.


End file.
